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Background   
   - Midas Product Family   
   - What is Midas?   
   - Midas Family Tree   
   - Current Frameworks   
   - Framework Interoperability   
   - The Midas Philosophy   
   - What is NeXtMidas?   
   - NeXtMidas Design   
   - NeXtMidas Benefits/Features   
   - NeXtMidas Option Trees   
   - Why use Java?   
   - Why use Java? (ctd.)   
   - Why use Java? (ctd.)   
Common Midas Concepts   
Getting Started - Part 1   
Getting Started - Part 2   
Working with Files   
Option Trees   
Macros - Part 1 (Basics)   
Macros - Part 2 (Graphics)   
NetBeans - Part 1 (Setup)   
NetBeans - Part 2 (GUIs)   
NetBeans - Part 3 (Profiler)   
Eclipse - Part 1 (Setup)   
Eclipse - Part 2 (GUIs)   
Primitives   
Applets & WebStart   
Maps & Imagery   
X-Midas Interoperability   
RMIF & Remoting   
Installing NeXtMidas   
Support & Maintenance   
File Handlers   


  • Why use Java? (Continued)
    Java Catches Common Errors:
    Java is setup to gracefully catch common programming errors and handle them with an exception that indicates the line in the code where the problem occurred. For example,
    • If you try to access a null pointer, Java throws a NullPointerException.
    • If you try to access outside the bounds of an array, Java throws an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException.
    • etc.
    Java has Reflection.
    Reflection allows a running Java program to look at itself in the mirror and see what classes and methods are available.
    This allows a Java program to find methods and then call them while the program is running.
    NeXtMidas takes advantage of this by allowing users to call Java methods from the shell.
    Java Strings Use Unicode
    Not everyone uses American English, sometimes they use characters that aren't just A-to-Z. Unicode allows easy manipulation of non-western character sets.